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Barcelona was fantastic. Just a tip when flying the ‘low cost’ airline - ryanair to start with though. Firstly, no one seriously believes you when you advertise flights for 1 euro. We all know there is a catch. The catch is actually multiple. Catch 1 = plus taxes. That brings us up to 30 euro immediately. Yeah right, how come the taxes when you fly with easyjet are only about 10 euro. Anyway, moving on to catch 2, would you like to take a bag with you? Pardon? A bag? Well yes as a matter of fact, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to actually take some clothes with me for a 2 week trip overseas. Ok, so 40 euro is our ‘low cost price’? Well yeah, but you’re going to Barcelona right? Well, our ‘low cost Barcelona’ destination is the Girona airport. Anyone know where Girona is relative to Barcelona? I suppose naively I expected it was the name of the airport, not another city (kind of like Geelong is another city compared to Melbourne). Would you feel ripped off if you innocently bought a ticket to ‘Melbourne-Geelong’ and found out you were an hour and a half from actual Melbourne? Well, you may feel ripped off if you found the only way from Girona airport to actual Barcelona is by a bus (for 12 euro each). Guess who runs the bus line? Ok, so ‘low cost’ to Barcelona is 52 euro or so? So much for 1 euro ticket.
Ok, enough complaining. The hotel we stayed in was fantastic, almost brand new, LCD TV, dark wood finish, marble bathroom, top notch. The cities architecture (primarily by one guy called Gaudi) is amazing, quite unique with lots of rounded elements to buildings. So clean too, within the first 24 hours we had noticed workers hand sweeping the footpaths, hosing down the footpaths, and collecting rubbish on 2 occasions. As opposed to Milan, which was dirty. The train stations are also state of the art, they give when the next train is coming - TO THE SECOND. Only twice was it wrong. And again can I stress, I mean to the second, the train comes to a complete stop as the countdown reaches 0. So clean too, best train stations and train system I’ve come across. The language is beautiful, I actually found it easier on the ear than French, Italian or German. Feminine in some ways, lots of ‘th’ sounds which makes everyone sound like they have a lisp, for example, gracias is pronounced gra-thy-as. Really friendly people too, immediately felt at ease. The weather was fantastic, 22 degrees, blue and sunny on the day we left, which was a shock when we arrived back in Bristol (8 degrees, windy, dark, raining - at 5PM). The food deserves a blog of its own, (which I’m sure won’t appeal to many people, but I love food, so I will indulge myself at a latter date - probably have to wipe the slober off the computer as I reminisce, oh yeah baby, so good, oh, sorry, excuse me). The shops are great, and cheap, Katie was in heaven , with about a billion shoes and shoe shops to spend hours in. She was able to control herself though (just). Lots of either stolen or fake fashion bags too, being sold by immigrants who have obviously swum across from Africa. Well at least that’s how it appeared when we were suddenly caught in a swarm of guys sprinting across the road with sacks full of bags which they had whipped up from their ground display. Fully 1 minute after they had dispersed they were all back taking up their positions, temporarily disrupted like a flock of seagulls, only to resettle immediately. Dodgy, dodgy guys, continuously scanning the crowd, flighty, edgey, yeah, I’m going to buy a bag off you. Anyway, first day we did the bus tour thing. Great way to get an idea of what is what. Now of course I’m an Aussie and Melbourne is the centre of the universe in my world, but honestly, the football stadium which they proudly state is the 3rd biggest soccer stadium in the world is probably big when compared to say the back oval at Wesley, but to blow them away, all we need is three little letters - M - C - G. Ah fellas, 110, 000 people? Yeah, now go and kick your little soccer ball around your little park oval and pretend you’re in the big league, get back to me when your attendances reach 6 figures. Day 2 we had a cruise on the Mediterranean. Technically true, but more of a tour along the coast of Barcelona. Great to see Columbus statue looking out over the port. True to form, Katie made some more cat friends at a Spanish village replica. Authentic craftsmen producing their wares were interesting too, particularly the glass blowing, where a horse literally appeared out of hot glass in about 60 seconds. Went to Catwalk club that night to see Bob Sinclar, and went to Pacha the next night. On the way to Pacha were passed along the road by a very tall woman with a corset on pushing her bust up under her chin, but it wasn’t until she had passed by and Katie had looked back that we also noticed her lack of formal leg wear. Now I’ve said Barcelona is warm, but a red plastic G string probably isn’t enough to wear at 1AM when strutting along the street. And I mean strutting. Pretty sure she wasn’t a nun. Saturday took us to the Picasso museum. I used to think Picasso was that guy who did those weird cubist works which to be honest don’t look all that hard to replicate if you have the drawing skills of a 5 year old. Entirely different view of the man (actually since seeing some of his work in Melbourne). By 15 he was bored with everything he was learning, nothing was new to his eyes, there was no challenge. Most 15 year olds probably feel this way, but fewer of them are actually capable of producing masterpieces in any given style with such ease (despite what they may think). It was a brilliant overview of his work, and really in my mind proved he is a genius rather than just a master. Stimulating a different part of our brains, we found an amazing chocolate store around the corner too, maybe not up to his genius, but pretty good. Have to mention La famiglia. Some projects tend to run behind schedule in Melbourne, yes, but this one takes the cake. Started in 1800 and something, not due to be finished until 2050. No rush I suppose. Its an icon of Barcelona, like the Eiffel tower in Paris or Big Ben. All in all, I loved Barcelona, it was so clean, welcoming, warm and friendly that I wouldn’t hesitate to go back. Sure there are poor areas, and it gives a new definition to high density housing, but the fundamental thing is, the people are lovely, its cheap, warm, there is great food and nightlife and you really feel comfortable being there and don’t want to leave.

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